Unhinged Spotlights: Khaldera

Instrumental psychedelic rockers Khaldera are set to make waves with their newly released, EP Alteration. The combination of uniqueness and pure musical talent from the Switzerland based band caught our attention, so we had to find out more about the band. We sat down with guitarist Sven Egloff to learn more about how these guys came to be, their most recent EP release, Alteration and more.

Neshell Hogan: Thanks for chatting with us! For those who are new to your music, can you tell us a little about how Khaldera came to be?

Sven Egloff: Guitarist Sven and drummer Fabio have already been jamming together for quite a while, so in 2010 they decided to form this into an actual project. Later bassist Jonas joined in. All three connect a very long friendship and the songwriting usually happens in this constellation. After the release of our new EP Alteration, Simon joined us as a live-guitarist.

Who would you say are some of the band’s biggest musical influences that inspire your sound?

Of course we are somehow influenced by our own “music consumption,” but we don’t orientate us on any other bands in terms of crafting our songs. There are a couple of influential artists, although they’re not necessarily recognizable if you listen to us. At the time when the band started, the hypnotic sound of Minsk’s great “The Ritual Fires of Abandonnement,” as well as their live performances ignited a certain energy to go beyond what we had done up to this point. In general, we appreciate bands who are able to transform themselves and musically grow over the time.

You guys recently released your EP Alteration. Can you tell us a bit about the production that went into the record?

We still try to do as much as we can by ourselves. At first Sven recorded all the guitars by himself, then Fabio played the drums on top of that. This time we went to Simon (Jameson of BlackArt Audio Studios and our live-guitarist). He recorded drums there for the first time, but it turned out very nice. In the end, Jonas played the fretless bass, which was recorded at BlackArt Audio as well. The Ambient-Intro on “Impending Tempest” was arranged and pre-mixed by Fabio. The synths, percussions and arrangements for the other ambient parts were recorded at our bandroom and pre-mixed by Sven. The recording-process for “Afterglow” was pretty chaotic and continuous, as we combined improvised material from various jams with intentional, arranged sounds. In the end, Simon mixed and mastered all songs to it’s final result. He also created the Synth-Outro on “The inevitability of Transition.”

Should we expect a full-length release in the near future?

Yes, there definitely will be a full-length next. We don’t have a certain deadline, but there is enough material waiting to be finished.

Since you guys are an instrumental band, do you find it easier or more difficult to convey the story your music creates?

Well, we don’t know any other way to do it. That’s how we always wrote songs and there’s nothing missing to us. We like that there’s no voice, to cast you into a certain feeling or a genre. In our opinion, a good vocalist should add something to the music, or at best truly transmit the feeling of the instrumental and get one with it. We definitely would be up for it though.

Any upcoming tours or shows on the horizon?

Yes, there will be some shows. Our first ever actually. They will be announced very soon, but so far only take place in Switzerland and a few other countries in Europe.

Stream Alteration below!

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